FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Bill assuages nurses', patients' concerns over vaccine liability, compensation issues Silver Spring, MD - The American Nurses Association (ANA) commends Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives for their unveiling today of a comprehensive strategy for combating a possible avian influenza pandemic. The proposed House bill will take a multi-pronged approach to fighting a potential influenza pandemic by increasing international surveillance, boosting domestic supplies of vaccines and anti-viral medications, and allocating more funding to state and local public health infrastructures. The bill also addresses key issues surrounding proposed liability protections for manufacturers who develop influenza vaccines and health care workers who administer influenza vaccine, as well as compensation for victims of adverse vaccine reactions. In addition, the proposed legislation provides for the education and prescreening of health care workers as well as the general public, and it requires the government to develop workplace standards and plans to protect health care workers and other first responders in the event of an influenza pandemic - provisions that are critical to ensuring that first responders get vaccinated and are willing and able to do their jobs. "We commend the House Democrats for introducing this much-needed legislation, which offers built-in protections regarding potential liability and compensation issues that otherwise could adversely affect nurses and their patients," said ANA President Barbara Blakeney, MS, RN. "While we understand the need to protect vaccine manufacturers, we feel it is just as important to cover the nurses and other health care workers who administer influenza vaccine, as well as the people who actually roll up their sleeves and get inoculated."
In early November, ANA commended President Bush for his leadership in developing a national strategy for pandemic influenza, but the association stopped short of giving the administration approval of key components of the plan because of reservations regarding proposed blanket liability protections for vaccine manufacturers, a conspicuous lack of comprehensive compensation program protections for persons receiving the vaccine, and insufficient workplace protections for nurses who care for influenza patients. Past experiences with broad-scale vaccination campaigns have demonstrated the need for robust education and prescreening as well as injury compensation. For example, in 2003 the Bush administration called upon 500,000 health care workers to be vaccinated against smallpox despite protests from ANA over an absence of meaningful prescreening or injury compensation provisions. The administration's mass inoculation program ultimately failed when nurses and other health care workers across the country heeded ANA's warnings against participating in the program after two health care workers died from heart complications that developed shortly after the vaccine was administered. Public health experts also have argued that the administration's influenza pandemic plan puts a huge unfunded financial burden on the states (of $510 million) by requiring states to shoulder the cost of purchasing anti-virals. In addition, the president's plan only provides for $100 million for planning activities. By contrast, the House Democratic proposal provides $200 million to the states to pay for planning for an influenza pandemic, and $300 million to states and localities to restore funding to the general health preparedness plans, to cover the cost of delivering annual influenza shots and to increase funding for surge capacity and ongoing pandemic influenza planning activities. The House Democrats' avian influenza pandemic plan was developed in response to mounting concerns regarding the H5N1 avian influenza virus. While no cases of avian influenza have been detected in the United States, more than 60 people in Asia have died from it, and 200 million birds have been killed to help prevent its spread. Also, although there is no evidence that the current virus is transmitted between humans, the concern is that it could quickly mutate into a fast-spreading global outbreak involving many deaths. In addition to supporting the House Democrats' avian influenza vaccine plan, President Blakeney has communicated ANA's desire to work with the administration to ensure the adequate preparedness of the nation to address the threat of a possible pandemic and to clarify nursing's role in such an event. "ANA looks forward to ironing out with Congress and the administration the strongest and best possible national campaign to improve pandemic influenza preparedness and response," said Blakeney. "And certainly, developing new vaccines and other influenza countermeasures is an important component of that effort. But these measures will be much more likely to succeed if the persons who administer and receive them are educated regarding their potential benefits and risks, and if these individuals are compensated in the event of adverse outcomes." # # # # # #
December 14, 2005
CONTACT:
Cindy Price, 301-628-5038
Catherine Sebold, 301-628-5198
ANA Hails U.S. House Democrats' Pandemic Influenza Plan
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